''Tobeluk vs. Lind'' was a landmark case in Alaskan Native education. The 27 teenage plaintiffs brought suit against the State of Alaska, claiming that

Native American boarding schools American Indian boarding schools, also known more recently as American Indian residential schools, were established in the United States from the mid-17th to the early 20th centuries with a main primary objective of " civilizing" or assimila ...

were discriminatory and unjust. The case is widely known as the "Molly Hootch Case" after the first plaintiff named. At the time of the case, Alaskan Native parents were forced to send their children away for schooling because of a lack of quality local educational facilities in their towns. Boarding schools had historically been used as a tactic of assimilating Native students into white culture. Alaskan Native children were sent far from their parents for their secondary education, often heading to the contiguous 48 states and boarding with local non-Native families. They were thus immersed in a situation that was both geographically (Oregon, Oklahoma, etc.) and culturally removed from their place of origin. The plaintiffs alleged that this situation led to mistreatment of the Native students and a high dropout rate among them (65% within two years, in one documented case), signs of educational inequality. In October 1976, the signing of the Tobeluk

Consent Decree A consent decree is an agreement or settlement that resolves a dispute between two parties without admission of guilt (in a criminal case) or liability (in a civil case). Most often it is such a type of settlement in the United States. The ...

committed the government to building local high schools in Alaska, which they have since done with positive results on retention rates. The state by means of the consent decree agreed to create a secondary school in any village with at least fifteen high school-aged children.

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Alaska Natives and United States law Alaska state case law Public education in Alaska Native American boarding schools 1976 in Alaska 1976 in education 1976 in United States case law United States Native American case law United States education case law {{US-case-law-stub